Invader Zim: Existance
by Sick42
Summary: Experiment; Dib finally becomes what he's studied for so long-a vampire. Rated T for language. *Yes, I Actually Updated! WHOO!*
1. Chapter 1

**Sick's Disclaimer**_: Invader Zim does not belong to me. I still think this is a good thing- the sheer amount of IZ fanfiction love would probably go to my head. I do own a disturbing sense of humor and the characters Kira and Mara. _

Dib's Prospective

In my dreams I was always flying. Able to survey everything below me, see what was coming.

I always hated surprises. "Wake up, kid." A gentle shove against my shoulder. "Di-ib." Cheh, have to try harder than that, thanks. "He's kinda cute-"

SLAM!

"Holy shit!," I yelped, eyes flying open as I proceeded to bash my forehead on the wood panel not four unsettling inches over my head. "Ow…" Seeing stars, I slumped back, muttering a muffled 'son of a-'. Where the hell was-

…I? Pushing on the dropped panel with both palms, ridiculously intense white light peaking in, stabbing my retinas.

"And the kid more or less lives!," an annoyingly cheery female voice exclaimed, grabbing the edge and helping to pull it all the way back. I warily pushed myself up into a sitting position, a difficult thing to do when half your limbs still thought they were asleep.

I squinted in the direction of the voice, realizing what I was missing and instantly defensive for it. "Who are you?," I demanded, trying to sound badass and intimidating. _Jeez, _where_ are you_…Unfortunately, my voice died in my throat about halfway through and no amount of coughing was going to salvage what I imagined to be dignity.

"Relax, kiddo," the female I vaguely recognized from before laughed. "You're a sound sleeper, must've taken more blood than I meant." She came up close enough where I could see her better even with my bad eyesight, taking my bare wrist in her cold hand; what breath I still had caught in my throat.

The person was most definitely female, even without my glasses I could tell that. A blur of green and brown, I blinked, shying away from her instinctively though I knew I had literally nowhere to go-

"Relax, Dib," she murmured gently, supporting me before I even realized I was falling back, a wave of dizziness threatening to put me under again. "Are you in any pain?"

Her touch was a lot colder than I anticipated, her arm loosely around my bare back. Something was really wrong here, and it bothered me I couldn't see it…

I blinked a couple of times and gently shook my head in a vain attempt to try to clear the black spots out of my eyes. Should I be? No, I wasn't in any pain, even where I'd introduced my forehead to the edge of the-

Oh.

Dammit.

"This is either a bad joke, or I'm…" A sinking feeling somewhere in the vicinity of my heels prevented me from actually saying it.

"Dead?," she provided gently. "Well, kind of, but that's usually what happens when humans get stabbed like you managed to." I could feel the concern in her stare as she placed a piece of cold metal in my hand, and what feeling remained in my heels slowly completely disintegrated. "Dib?"

It was a couple of seconds before I realized she'd said my name, but I snapped to attention as soon as it occurred to me I should reply. "Kira."

"Yes." She seemed to take it as a good sign I both hadn't passed out and remembered her name. Yay. Keep in mind I was just thankful I hadn't started screaming and been unable to stop.

Yet.

I slipped on my glasses with one remarkably steady, practiced motion, regarding her the whole time with a deadpan expression. "So I'm…dead," I said with the tone of someone who wanted to make absolutely sure he knew what was going on and felt ridiculously stupid as he did. Which actually wasn't far from the truth…

"More or less." Kira shrugged, a smile always on her face. Did she never take anything seriously? "Technically a vampire, actually." A look of almost motherly concern narrowed her eyebrows. "You look like shit. You've been out for almost three days, I was worried you might not take…"

I was still hung up on 'vampire'. "What do you mean-"

"Here, let's get you out of this, first…" Pressing on a panel, the side fell forward, making it easy to slip out. Careful not to twist my bandaged side, and from somewhere relieved I was still wearing my black pants, she helped me out, letting me lean on her for a second so as to find my balance.

Sitting me down the first row of fold out chairs, she pulled a plastic bag full of a dark red fluid from a backpack at her feet. "You need to eat, kiddo," she warned, pressing the packet into my hands. I hadn't felt hungry, and still didn't- at least not in the usual sense. Just kind of…numb. "Human food you can still consume in moderation, but your body has reprogrammed itself to use blood, plasma actually."

The idea of consuming blood didn't bother me as much as I guess it should have, but I didn't just immediately take to it, either. I gave her a skeptical look that I felt no shame about, but she just nodded, helping me open it with a switch knife.

As soon as the blood touched my tongue, I knew I was hooked. As disgusting as it sounds, it took immense control not to just rip the plastic apart; it was all I could do to drink as slowly as I did. Kira watched me intently, something I was painfully aware of the whole time; finally, simultaneously forever and too soon, it was empty. Feeling like I was shaking worse now than before, I avoided meeting her eyes and forced myself to set it aside, wiping my mouth absently with the back of my hand.

"Like a tomato-y Capri Sun," I muttered, attempting a lame joke. Kira smiled indulgently.

Letting my stomach settle for a minute, I leaned forward in the chair far enough to rest my elbows on my knees. Amazingly, I noticed my head had stopped pounding so badly, permitting almost coherent thought.

Three days asleep…in a _coffin_, no less…I shuddered inwardly. No wonder I didn't remember much of anything, I thought with a dark snort, closing my eyes. I understood Kira's reasoning (it was dark, inconspicuous, she liked to mess with me) but it didn't make it much easier to take. I did remember Kira, she had been the director at dad's funeral-she had been wearing the same type of suit. Kinda hard to forget something that precise shade of green.

Insofar as being a vampire… The paranormal had been an interest of mine since I was little, but I had somehow never really contemplated actually _becoming_ one of what I had studied so passionately. I decided it wasn't something I particularly regretted, which was kind of a surprise in itself; just a thought I figured I'd have to get accustomed to.

That being said, there was something that bothered me about the whole thing…

I rubbed the back of my neck absently, a nervous habit I thought I'd gotten rid of years before. I had always thought too much, gotten hung up on the details; on more than one occasion it had nearly gotten me killed…

Kira touched my cheek, taking the empty bag out of my hand. I had never sought out physical human contact, a violently bipolar sister and practically nonexistent father had killed any real even subconscious interest in that a long time ago. Still, I didn't flinch at the contact.

_Just this once, for a little while, let it go. _

"Feel better?"

I nodded, relieved to find it was true.

_Little experiment, I wanted to see what Dib's reaction would be to actually becoming what he used to study. I kind of cheated, this story occurs when Dib is about fifteen and Zim has left the planet for six months, so circumstances have dictated a different response than if he were still a kid... I have plans for this if people would like me to continue; yes, Zim will eventually appear, though at this point in flashback capacity only. _

_I had to rewrite this thing _four different times_- and it still didn't come out the way I planned…Oh well. _

_Sick_


	2. Chapter 2

_So, it occurs to me I need a beta for my summaries. XD Thank you Zimsmostloyalservant for calling that error to my attention, hope the change I made fixed it. _

_A huge thank you for the reviews, to those who submitted them; yes, I will try to update about once every two weeks, if possible. _I will finish this_: I hate reading a story only to find it abandoned halfway through. _

This is a fucking long ass chapter, holy crap. And I hate about half of it. This will get so much better after this, I swear.

_Disclaimer: Invader Zim still doesn't belong to me. A borderline unhealthy obsession with Dib…Yeah, I'll admit to owning that. Proudly. _

I glanced around, trying to figure out where the hell we were. A small auditorium of some kind, it reminded me a bit of a chapel, with the weirdly high ceiling and depressed forward focus point, a ten-foot area where a podium and decorative flowers were positioned. Three eerily white coffins were set up in front of that lengthwise; I shuddered again at the thought that I'd spent three days in one of them…

_Yeah, that's logical_, I thought. Vampirism you're more or less fine with, coffins, eh, not so much.

But holy crap, it was cold. It made sense for a funeral home or burial agency, which chances were what this place was- it meant slower deterioration of a corpse, especially since most funerals not involving cremation happened as much as two weeks after expiration.

_Expiration_…Feh, just say it, you idiot: Death. A couple of days ago I had died, yet I was somehow still here. It wasn't that I wasn't appreciative, and I knew I believed in some pretty far-fetched stuff, but it was… well, against my nature to accept something as simple as Kira's explanation.

No matter how much I wanted to believe it.

"Dib." I shook myself, turning my attention immediately back to her. _Gotta stop spacing out_, I silently admonished with an irritated growl.

"Sorry," I muttered, rubbing the back of my neck.

"Never apologize, kiddo," Kira said absently, herself focused again on digging through her bag and cursing under her breath. "Life's too short for even us to be sorry about any of it." She flashed me a smile, producing another Ziploc bag, this time containing a blue long-sleeve shirt. "Here, put this on," she suggested, pressing it into my hands. "I was just saying, I know you must have questions, and I will answer them, but if you'll follow me, I want to show you something beforehand."

Feeling apprehensive, I nodded, pulling the shirt over my head gingerly. It was a couple sizes too large, but that was fine, it didn't disturb the bandages around my chest so badly that way…

Stuffing the empty plastic back into her bag, she held out a hand. Taking it almost without a second thought, she helped me to my feet. Muttering 'thanks', I followed her as she wordlessly headed for the doors.

As we got closer, I slowly became aware of a kind of static ringing in my ears, almost irritating in its intensity.

"Hang on..." I cocked my head, suddenly recognizing what that static pressure was. "Is that seriously 'Nine Inch Nails'?" A ridiculous, but mostly disturbing, image popped into my mind: That would just be great, walk in on a vampire rave party…

Kira paused for a second. "I was wondering what that..." Her voice trailed off, her expression shifting almost imperceptably into something approaching dangerous. "I'll kill her." She abruptly took off again for the door, this time yelling, "Mara!"

X X X X

Wincing at the startling increase in sound volume, I followed her through the heavy wrought iron doors, limping slightly. It was warmer out here, at least, for which I was thankful.

The hallway outside was packed with people, all muttering dully; they all looked like shadows, dancing in the firelight, black and without a definable form. Like a wave, both Kira and I were almost immediately buried in the throng, which seemed to take no notice of us.

"Haven, the funeral home I and Mara run, has been in my family for generations," she explained in an offhand way, weaving through the crowd like a hand parts a curtain. "We cater to both humans and our kind- a funeral service for humans, kind of a halfway point for vampires. Though that's not going to help Mara's sorry carcass when I find her," Kira added under her breath.

Following her doggedly, I reflected it was probably fortunate that Kira seemed to like to talk as much as I did. Made her a lot easier to follow, for one thing.

"Crucifixes have no effect on us; kind of fortunate, come to think of it, as I've got the things all over the place," she said thoughtfully, pausing in her tracks to look over her shoulder. As soon as she had verified that I had caught up, she continued on again, "Let's see, the only way you'll have a reaction to garlic is because your perceptions have changed a bit... Here." Pushing through another set of doors, I followed her down a shorter, empty hallway.

"What's down here?," I asked in an undertone, mostly to myself.

"Mara, hopefully."

We stopped at the end of the hallway in front of a white, metal maintenance door. Not so much as pausing, Kira knocked sharply, barking out, "Mara!"

Almost instantly the room fell utterly silent; I think to both our relief, the overhead speakers did as well. "Look, before you say anything, remember that you did say 'test the speaker system'," a distracted female voice called crossly.

Kira snorted.

"-In fact, come to think of it, the exact quote was something along the lines of, 'Mara, I have no idea what's wrong with it, go pull the answer out your ass-"

"_Mara_."

"-but I digress." There was a scraping of wheels on the floor, and then the door slid open just far enough to permit what was presumably Mara's head.

"Yes?," she asked, giving the both of us a vague, surprised look.

Exhaling slowly, Kira managed a smile. "Dib, you've met her before, but this is Mara, my second."

I had to disagree with part of that statement. Fully aware my short term memory was pretty much shot, I was nonetheless pretty sure I would have made a point of remembering her.

Everything about her was over the top, from the crazy shock of electric blue, eighties-style hair to her tie-dyed tank top and jeans. A pair of huge, DJ-style headphones hung around her neck, making her seem even smaller than she actually was. _And infinately more spastic,_ I thought, alarmed.

"So, this is the kid?," she asked Kira, giving me a brief visual once-over. "Looks a lot like his dad. " Turning to Kira, she said, "I'll have a room set up for him in a few, just gotta finish this really quick. Oh, and there's this." Pulling a folded sheet of paper out of her pocket, she held it out to Kira. "Gray called, or rather that snippy little secretary of his did. Left a very rude message, apparently he wasn't too impressed that you failed to make your little meeting a couple days ago, and took it personally."

"Really," Kira murmured, taking it and placing it in her trouser pocket. "That's interesting. Gray care to mention whether he would be coming by?"

"Nope."

"Figures. Alright, thanks." Mara gave us two thumbs up and kicked the door shut after us.

"Just seem to be running you all over the place, huh?," Kira asked me as we walked back. "One more place, I promise. You alright?"

I nodded. "Look, I wasn't trying to be rude back there-"

There was a moment where she just stared at me, and then seeing that I was serious, she laughed. "Dib, relax. Trust me, I'll let you know if I think you're being rude. Just for you, I'll make it distinctively obvious."

X X X X

"...You'll have to excuse the mess." Kira opened the door to her study, ushering me in.

_Excuse the mess..._ The place was immaculate, a single desk of simplistic but functional design, couch, and a trio of leather hardback chairs the only furniture.

She motioned for me to sit in the chair across from her desk; nervous without really knowing why, I remained standing until after she had seated.

"Dib, first thing's first, I need to apologize. Keeping in mind how often I do out of principle…" She paused, looking momentarily distracted. "Please understand I'm still rather new at this, myself. Add that to how I found you, and… Damn..." She spoke with the tone of someone trying to talk herself into something, failing, and knowing it; I waited patiently for her to collect her thoughts.

"I'm usually more articulate than this... Okay, I think you mentioned you were a paranormal researcher when you were younger, right?" I nodded slowly. "I'm sure you came across lots of stories about our kind-"

There came a sharp knock at the door. Kira's eyes flickered over to it, betraying only a marginal sense of irritation before calling, "Enter."

"Hang on!," came a female voice, apparently directed down the stairs; the both of us winced at the crash of what sounded like one of the statues in the hallway shattering. "Gray's here to see you, Kira," Mara reported in a low voice a few awkward seconds later, cracking the door open just far enough to facilitate her voice and then snapping it closed.

Kira rolled her eyes, resting her forehead on the desk surface. "_Fantastic_..."

A second later, there was a cursory knock, but it wasn't Mara who entered.

"As it appears we have no choice… Dib, this is Evander Gray," Kira said. Eyes flashing at his intrusion, she stood, motioning for me to remain seated.

Gray literally towered over Kira, with intense, dark eyes that seemed to bore into you. On some people, I figured, a white lab coat would be a reassuring symbol, but with Gray, that was most definitely not the case: Possessing the air of a scientist regarding everything as his personal experiment, everything about the guy screamed 'I have absolutely no problem with cutting you open and having you watch'.

Which is why it kinda freaked me out when he said, "We've met," regarding me with a creepy look of honest familiarity that showed way to many teeth. "Haven't we, Membrane?"

_Joke's on at least one of you_, I thought, _really_ not liking where this was going; I had no idea who tall, dark and insane was.

Noticing his attention had shifted to me, Kira spat, "Gray was just leaving."

"Come now, I'm sure you know I wouldn't be here unless it were for something of legitimate purpose," Gray sneered, taking a step further into the office. Asshole.

_Scared_ _asshole_, _actually_, I realized, watching him with wary interest now. Yep, he'd managed to get just close enough that Kira couldn't politely ignore him, but was still out of reach so she couldn't throttle him without inconvenience.

From where she stood next to the door, Mara appeared to share the sentiment.

"You continue to labor under the false impression you are welcome here at all," Kira bit out, every word like a shard of ice (the effect of which was only slightly marred by the squeek of a plastic stress ball that enunciated every word). "Your permission expired the last time I had to physically remove your sorry carcass."

"You wouldn't kill me here in your own house," Gray pressed confidently, refusing, in my opinion, rather stupidly to back down. "All I'm asking for is a moment-"

"You're probably right," Kira shot back over his plea, drumming her fingertips on the surface of the desk, "it would cost a fortune to get the blood out of my carpet." Gesturing dismissively, she caught Mara's eye. "Mara, please escort our visitor out before I introduce him to the third floor window."

Mara made no secret of a grin, answering with a simple nod. Gray, perhaps finally realizing he wasn't going to get anywhere, though obviously not happy about it, allowed himself to be followed out.

"What do you think?," Kira asked me abruptly, not looking up from her stress ball.

I didn't speak until I was sure the door had closed after them. "What on earth did he want? He knew me. Or at least, of me."

Kira gave a soft snort, giving one final squeeze on the ball before tossing it aside onto her desk. "He should. He used to work for your father."

X X X X

I still wasn't sure how I could be that tired after that, but after catching me dozing off standing up, Kira decided she had an explanation:

"Jeez, its six in the morning, sweetie, no wonder. Mara should have your room ready, come to think of it."

Leading me back down to the darkened hallway, I was relieved to find it completely deserted. "I have one request while you are here," Kira intoned, "do not leave your room except with Mara and I, do you understand?" She looked over her shoulder, and I nodded solemnly; not a difficult request to uphold.

"Of course," I promised. "A-and, thank you." She didn't say anything, but regarded me sadly for a moment.

The room Mara had set me up in was small, furnished simply with a side table and a cot. A door I mistook for a closet at first led to a tiny bathroom; a tiny part of me wondered if water would burn my skin, like in the stories I had read what felt like so long ago...

An awkward pang shot through me. There was something else, something about water I was forgetting...

I shook my head, but whatever it was refused to come. _Damn it. _

"Sleep well, kiddo," she yawned, patting me on the shoulder. "I'll send Mara for you in a few hours, maybe then I can actually show you around the place..."

I nodded, watching her turn and leave, closing the door behind her with a click.

Making a point of checking the room, it was only after I had painstakingly verified it was completely empty that I was able to relax. _Relax_... Feh, all I wanted to do was curl up somewhere and not wake up for ages and ages... Sliding back against the edge of the bed, I let the back of my head rest against the mattress, closing my eyes... Maybe this would turn out to be another of my weird dreams, but a part of me doubted it.

Every bit of this was all kinds of crazy, I thought. Kira, the insane, obsessive-compulsive vampire; Mara, who was if anything more so... What was with that Gray guy, anyway? Obviously Kira and him had a history, and somehow I doubted we had seen the last of him...

My eyes flicked open so that I was staring at the ceiling. Gah, even DEAD I couldn't stop my stupid brain from taking off down disturbing tangents. Trying to laugh this off only made me feel sick, but I was utterly incapable of ignoring it...

More for the distraction of movement, I shoved myself up again. The silence of the room was almost maddening; glancing to the locked door to my left, I looked down at myself a bit self-consciously. _You know what, a shower sounds awesome_, I decided.

X X X X

Twenty minutes later, I ran a hand through my damp hair, glancing at my reflection in the bathroom mirror. Water had no adverse effects on me, I had been relieved to find.

What I had been not so relieved to discover was the five-inch-long, half-healed cut across my left side. It didn't hurt, though it most definitely looked like it should...

_What the hell happened to me_?, I wondered hardly for the first or last time. I did remember Kira had mentioned something about a stabbing, but try as I might, I literally couldn't recall anything from more than about six or seven hours ago, and therefore only had her word to go on.._. Yay_. I shuddered, simultaneously trying not to think about it and hating my stupid overactive imagination...

After quickly slipping the shirt back on and readjusting my glasses, I took another, longer look: I was still skinny, a bit short for fifteen. My hazel eyes were a bit bloodshot, which I'll admit bothered me; I liked my eyes, they were one of the few physical attributes I had not shared with my father. My long jet-black hair I usually kept tied up, if to do nothing more than keep it out of the way; pale more from just not being out in the sun than anything particularly supernatural, I just looked hollow, tired.

My reflection gave a small smile. Some bloodthirsty demon I made.

_Vampire_... I held a hand over my heart, feeling it beat slowly, surely much slower than it should have if I were really alive, I reasoned… Kind of pathetic that that was really the only proof I had of Kira's claim, I thought with a dark snort, pointedly choosing to ignore the fact I had also voluntarily consumed human blood not but a few hours previously...

A flash of movement out of the corner of my eye jerked me out of my progressively more disturbing thoughts. A tiny voice in the back of my head screamed a warning-

_Mara_-

_Wait, what?_ Whirling around on my heel to face her, I managed to slip on the polished floor in my socks, catching myself on the side of the sink, but didn't care- Damn, how long had she been there?

And for that matter, how had I missed her?

Sitting on the edge of the bed and looking entirely bored, she lazily regarded me with a deadpan stare. "Tense, Membrane?," she snickered, eyes flickering to meet mine and then away. Like a snake, I thought with a shiver.

What was with this girl? "What do you want?," I shot, defensive. Was she going to attack me? She was Kira's second, but I still wasn't entirely sure what kind of relationship the two had.

Her eyes narrowed slightly at my reaction, but otherwise she gave no indication she'd heard me- at least at first. Shoving herself up, she came at me; instinctively bracing for an attack, I stepped back in an awkward defensive stance-

Somehow despite being a good couple of inches taller than her, she managed to get directly in my face, stopping just short of actually touching, but close enough that I could feel her breath. For the first time, I noticed she had a scent, subtle but distinctly-

Holy shit, she's _human_.

"I wanted… to see for myself…," she muttered finally in a distracted, faraway voice, her expression confused, and maybe a little disappointed. Stepping back, she gave a curt bow, muttering under her breath and not looking back until she reached the door. "Good night," she called absently, closing the door behind her with a soft click.

"That was…weird," I muttered, not exactly sure what to make of what had just happened. As sick as it sounded, it would have made more sense if she had punched me... Shaking my head, I sat on the edge of the mattress, hearing it creak even under my slight weight. In the dead silence that filled the dimly lit room, and not for the first time, I seriously considered the possibility I was losing what was left of my mind…

A visual scan I utterly refused to believe had anything to do with paranoia verified the door was closed. Just like how I had done before taking my shower, I was sure of it… I paused, letting another, strangely reassuring, train of thought take over: Jeez, I was tired enough, maybe I had imagined the whole thing…

Shrugging and leaning sideways, I drew a pillow against the side of my face, sliding back until I lay completely on my uninjured side. A moot point, really, I finally decided, closing my eyes, glasses clenched in my free hand.

Nope, I decided a few seconds later, opening my eyes and groaning softly as I got up.

Vampire or not, hell, paranoid or not, I was locking the goddamn door.

_And so we introduce Mara, who's supposed to be creepier than Dib imagined, and Evander, who definitely turns into a bigger jerk than even this showed._

_Yay for painfully written plot. Yes, everything in this chapter has a point, I promise. ALL WILL BECOME CLEAR IN TIME (which considering how it took me two weeks to update, uh, might be a while…). _

_Additionally, I swear, _**the first person who**** even suggests Mara is in love with Dib**** gets shot**_. _**With a cow slingshot**_. Yes, we have those in Oklahoma. _

_Gaz and Zim both appear in the next chapter! Keeping that in mind, read, review and tell me how much this sucks. Much appreciated. ;)_

_Sick_


End file.
